Samsung S26 Series

You will get an email with a pre paid postage label to send in your trade in.

I got my email last Friday. Might be no harm contacting them.

I don't think so, or at least there was no mention of it in the message.

I don't get this about the screen being worse. It's definitely dimmer when the privacy when is active but when not active it looks the exact same as other Samsung screens from my experience. Maybe I'm missing something.

From what I read the adaptive colour tone setting changes how some colours are shown which might be exaggerating the issue but screen looks perfect to me 🤷

The screen also doesn't have the same level of anti reflective properties, so I imagine it would be noticeably worse outdoors in bright sunshine. I guess that's not something we have to worry about too much here.

Another thing I was reading about is reports of eye strain from the screen, has anyone noticed this? I can't say it's anything I've ever suffered from before with any screen, but I know some people are sensitive to it.

Also, for anyone who has the phone, does it come with a Gemini Advanced subscription this year?

I find the new screen perfect too. People just love to nitpick faults with the new devices every year.

TBH, I've no issues with the screen. If you're happy with the excellent screen of the S25U, you'll have no problems at all with the new model. Out only this morning in the sun and it performs just as well. Like the S25 and before, Samsung are always a little heavy with their adaptive brightness, so suit to taste as always. Anyone coming from a model of a few years back should be very impressed, as they should be.

There seems to be always a level of scare-mongering around the Samsung devices and their screens every year going back through the various releases, so it's important to not run with an '"issue" from someone online and accept it as verbatim. Likes of Gsmarena covered the unit's display in their lab tests on a brightness and colour reproduction level, and while I see the irony of posting this impression online of course, it's only personal experience that can reveal all - at this early stage of a few days theres no negligible impact and it retains the excellent levels of last year's release. The privacy screen does diminish the clarity and vibrancy, but it's an on the fly measure and well reported at this stage. It is not a global setting, and in truth, even at max effect, it's not going to hide what you're looking at from someone right on your shoulder for example if you have the phone at arms length. But I can certainly see the usefulness of it in certain scenarios, and if you have it down to even more of shortcut than a quick setting, it really is no problem to deal with, so you can have your perfect clarity 99.9% of the time. It's there to use, or not use.

Early days, but it is an excellent phone as an overall package, but that can't really decide for anyone else whether it's 'worth' upgrading to. There isn't a phone out there in the last 3 years that anyone "needs'" so to speak.

Edit - First real time out with the Buds 4 Pro this morning as well. Not bad, doesn't have anywhere near the 'body' of the Sony's but it's less of an issue as the ears continue to age. Still gets a good range across the board, and voice clarity in podcasts is very good. Noise-cancelling is certainly not up to par, but that's always the case with the Samsungs.

According to tests its a 3% drop in max brightness versus the s25U ultra

Tested Peak (HDR) (1,806 nits versus 1,860 nits).

Adaptive SDR (Sunlight) 1,209 nits versus 1,231 nits

I'd challenge anyone to spot that difference in a "blind" test. This screen is definitely not dim IRL

Its basically the same screen as last year. There were a few people negative at the beginning and that started a trend online. People just want a reason to hate the phone. Samsung did say the anti reflective coating will look worse when the screen is off.

On battery it stacks up with most other phones bar the Onplus and Oppo who have 7000+ batteries. I dont see Samsung changing the size until either a massive change in design or adopting silicon carbon. I was listening to a guy about this battery tech and he explained it quite good. He took Samsung Apple and Google as the 3 manufaturers who have not used it. He said not only do they ship vast amounts of phones but they also offer long updates for there phones. He said they will test it for longevity so that it wont be a safety concern in phones that people keep for 7 years or so.

Still on the fence here. i will make my mind up tomorrow. Colour is also a big decision. Should i go black to match the Buds 4 Pro and my Black Surface Laptop or White or Violet. Decisions Decisions

Technically it's a different screen but to my eyes it's the same. Just had a look at it in Currys and put my display beside it and didnt notice anything different. Currys had the Voilet and Arnotts the Black. Couldn't lift them up unfortunately.